The Houses of Runehold

The fortified, subterranean city of Runehold was carved out of a natural cavern in the Alabaster Sierras, during the Age of Glory. It is the ancestral home of the native dwarves of Iroralis, and the five major bloodlines that founded the city in ages past still rule to this day. The ruling families are Houses Stoneforge, Zuurthom, Bronzegrip, Frosthorn and Glorendar.

House Bronzegrip: Maintains the Bronzegrip metalworks; foremost house for smithing and metalwork.
House Glorendar.: Maintains the law and manages the Carvers.
House Stoneforge.: Controls the Keystone and the Stoneforge Quarry
House Frosthorn: The foremost house in all things magic.
House Zuurthom: The foremost house for architecture and masonry.

These Great Houses elect an official to the office of Ironkeeper every ten years to keep the alliances between houses just and healthy.
Though the culture of Runehold is highly traditional and as stoic as the stone it was carved from, it is not without unrest. It seems with every new generation has its own great social movement where disenfranchised workers or greedy, lesser noble houses attempt to unseat the ruling five. Yet for good or for ill, the Great Houses have time and time again shown that they can put aside their differences to preserve their mutual rulership.

Public Agenda

Each ruling house has a specialty and holds responsibility over that domain within Runehold.
House Stoneforge maintains the largest mine under Runehold, as well as the Pools of Solace.
House Zuurthom trains the chief architects of the city, and most masonry and building is organized through them.
House Bronzegrip funds the smithing guilds and maintains the Bronzegrip Metalworks, Runehold's largest blast furnace and ore refinery.
House Forsthorn prides itself on training Phesria's foremost scholars and premier arcanists.
House Glorendar maintains the law and delivers punishment, though a scandal almost twenty years ago saw them fall from grace, a tumble that briefly threw Runehold's judicial system into chaos and from which the clan is still recovering.

Type

Geopolitical, City council

Notable Members

• Lawmaster Bran Glorendar
• Orlen Stoneforge
• The Ironkeeper of Runehold